Julia's GRADUATION from BYU-Idaho

At Julia's Interior Design department celebration

Julia was able to have much of her family at her graduation from BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho.

  Dave and I flew in to Salt Lake on Wednesday, April 9th.  (Unfortunately Andrea was not able to take off school as she was playing in the orchestra for her school play. ) We drove down to Provo and had dinner with Daniel and Meg that evening.  They were just preparing for finals and weren't able to make it for the graduation.  My Mom had flown in the day before from San Diego and drove down with us to Provo.  The next morning we made the 5 hour drive to Rexburg.

That night, Thursday, was Julia's department celebration.  

We were able to see the boards and model of her last group project, a hospital.  It was very impressive!

Julia was honored with this award.

Friday morning we were able to attend the relatively new Rexburg temple with three of our children and their spouses, while my Mom and Julia watched the three children.

That morning Julia also finished packing up and moving from her nice apartment.

This is the I-Center where she graduated.  A new and huge building.

We got some shots of the new graduate afterwards.

Proud parents

 Julia is the 4th BYU-Idaho graduate in our family!

That night she received her diploma in her college.  

Interior Design is in the College of Physical Science and Engineering.

Surrounded by her family.  (Luke and Jacob and Blake left a bit earlier.)

On Saturday we took a nice hike along the Snake River.  Then we met up with my Uncle Monte, who is about 88, and his wife Violet, who live nearby in Idaho Falls, and have known our children while they have been to school there.

We had a little celebration for Tyler, who turned 26 on Monday, two days later.  Julia had also celebrated with that cake the night before.  :)

Audrey Louise was one month old that day.  Kara did a nice photo shoot with her.  Darling baby!

It was a great get together of 4 generations.

Audrey Louise Meiners is Born

Audrey Louise, our first granddaughter, was born March 12, 2014 to James and Tammy in Everett, WA.

Her middle name was in honor of Tammy, her mother, and me--we all have the middle name Louise, too!  They came to see us in December 2014.  (Here she is when we saw her in the future at about 9 months.

New Roof

 After 20 years, it seems like the time to get a new roof.

 The way they lifted all the shingles to the roof was awesome, but scary,

 And pretty loud inside.

The man was tied onto the end of the crane, but I'm glad he was sure footed and no incidents occurred.

You can't really get a sense of how big these birds are, but they really like the old roof. I wonder how they will take to the new one?

Babysitting the grandsons

Jacob and Blake were in Dallas with their parents for their Uncle Daniel's wedding.  They stayed in our hotel room with us the night before the wedding while their parents were at parties for Daniel and Meg.  We had a great time with our two superheroes.

January 3rd in Dallas

The day after Daniel's wedding, we spend some time as a family.  First, we had a surprise shower in our hotel room  for James' wife, Tammy, who is expecting a girl in March.  I couldn't resist this little jeans outfit, since baby Audrey will have my genes(jeans).

Kara planned the food and games.  Here my mom and I are head to head in a diaper changing contest.  (It is a little harder blind-folded--good thing we don't use safety pins any more!)

It was a lot of fun to get together and celebrate.

Later we met over at Meg's parents house to see Daniel and Meg open some of their gifts.  Here are 3 generations of women in our family--my mom, me, our four daughters and two daughter-in-laws.

Daniel and Meg had fun opening their gifts.

While Daniel and Meg had errands, the rest of us went to tour Dallas.  Here's a great picture of us at Kennedy's memorial.  Thanks to Craig for taking the picture. And thank you, Luke, (next to me in the sweatshirt) who kindly let his unprepared mother-in-law borrow his coat!

Daniel and Meg's Wedding

Thanks to my daughter, Kara, who took these pictures, and posted them on her  blog.    I am 'borrowing'  them from her well-written account of the day.

AT THE TEMPLE

Here's the Dallas Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) where Daniel and Meg were married for eternity on a beautiful but windy January morning.

Here they first walk out the temple door as a married couple.  You can see us waiting to greet them in the door's reflection.

Our nuclear family

The bride and groom at the brunch we hosted at a golf club.

The siblings table

Writing cards of wedding advice for the couple

Nephews: Jacob and Black

Cutting the Pie together

proud parents

First Dance

our family table with Connie, Kris and her family who live in Dallas

Send off with sparklers and well-wishers.  Congratulations!

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas David, Julia and Andrea.  We had a nice time.  

Dave is displaying his awesome new gift, a head massager!

Decorating the Tree

Andrea was the only child home to decorate for Christmas--much more quiet than usual.  She didn't have to fight anyone to put the star on top of the tree. :)  Julia came home from school in Idaho in plenty of time to enjoy the decorations.

Thanksgiving 2013

For Thanksgiving, it was more quiet than usual.  Julia and Daniel were away at school, and Andrea was the only child at home.  We invited  missionaries to join us.


Dave helped me weigh the turkey.

The elders were excited about the mashed potatoes! It was even more than they could finish off.

Good friends and a great family.  We have a lot to be thankful for!

Andrea at NATIONALS

 This is Andrea's third year playing the piccolo for her high school marching band.  They went to Nationals, which were held in Annapolis at the Navy stadium at the Naval Acadamy in Annapolis.

Dave was head of the pit crew this season--the fathers who run on the field before they start and put all their visuals and props in place.  The band did an awesome job. Congratulations, Andrea!

Happy Halloween!

Dave and I had our first Halloween without children.  Andrea was invited to represent her class at Ocean City for a conference, and is gone through tomorrow.  

We still carved our pumpkin and cooked the seeds, and enjoyed the trick-or-treaters. We exchanged pictures of our pumpkins and costumes with our children to share the holiday with them.

FALL Leaves are turning

Andrea enjoys the changing leaves in our yard.  Fall is a pretty time in Maryland.

Bye Bye Van

After 14 years of having a van to take us on vacations and help people move and take kids to boy scout camp, girls camp, treks and hikes, we sold our green van.  It wasn't cool to be picked up in it at high school, so Andrea wasn't too sad.  But, we did have lots of family memories in it.

My New Series: Being the Best Me

It was exciting to see the first copies of my new series arrive.  'Be Positive' and 'Feel Confident' are the first two of twelve in the new series.  They are larger than the previous series, and come in both hardcover and paperback.  While I have always loved the 'Learning to Get Along' series, which are paperback,  I am very excited about the hardcover option.  They have more of the feel of a loved child's story that is read over and over again.  I hope that this series will also be a resource to children, and that it will help them to understand their worth and potential.